GE still looking at “simplification” that could affect Schenectady

From the sound of it, General Electric Co. will continue to look at job reductions and other operating cost-cutting that could potentially impact its Schenectady operations, which is the headquarters of its Power & Water division.

On Friday, when GE revealed that its third quarter profit fell 9 percent to $3.2 billion, company executives also said that its restructuring plan and “simplification” project is still ongoing.

As part of those dual efforts, GE is letting go of about 200 white-collar employees through the end of the year that currently work in Schenectady, as part of a restructuring of its industrial businesses. That effort has cut $1 billion in annual operating costs already. Blue-collar manufacturing workers were not affected by the layoffs.

GE has 1,150 hourly workers assigned to its steam turbine and generator factory on its Schenectady campus. The campus is also the home of GE’s’ renewable energy business, including a control center that monitors the wind turbines the company’s customers have in the field, along with a battery factory that is part of GE’s transportation business.

Power & Water, which includes GE’s power plant turbine and generator business, as well as its wind business, is the largest of GE’s seven industrial units. GE said that Power & Water’s revenues for the third quarter were $6.498 billion, although that is down 10 percent over the same quarter last year due in large part to decreases in its thermal business, which includes turbines, and its wind business, which was down 42 percent.

Profit, however, in the Power & Water unit was up 9 percent, to $1.289 billion. GE said that the increase was driven in part by its “cost out,” which is what it calls cost-cutting.

Jeffrey Bornstein, GE’s CFO, told one analyst who had asked if the restructuring would continue into the fourth quarter that the company’s simplification effort is only in the early stages and will leave GE with a “smaller manufacturing footprint,” although he did not go into detail about if that meant fewer white-collar employees as will be in the case of Schenectady.

“Every day, we identify more opportunities to do what we do smarter,” Bornstein said.

GE is going to need as many workers as possible at the Schenectady turbine plant after winning a $1.9 billion power plant equipment deal with Algeria that will keep workers here busy for the next couple of years. GE CEO Jeff Immelt said that order will be booked during the current fourth quarter.

GE’s research and development center in Niskayuna and its Idea Lab in Albany, which works to commercialize the company’s’ inventions in partnership with the R&D center, did not experience any of the job cuts at GE that appears to have been focused more on its manufacturing-heavy industrial businesses.

Larry Rulison

5 Responses

GE apparently thinks employees are expendable. They know longer care about their workers and the communities where they are located. The very reason why they are very profitable. Like most businesses excess profit is all they care about. They expect society to help them be successful but feel no obligation to that society. Welcome to neoliberal economics and the new gilded age.

The headline for the print version of this story is, “GE sees cuts as path to boost profits: Job loss in region part of $1B worldwide reduction effort.” The story itself is very, very cold, with no cognizance given to the human toll of these layoff decisions.

The adjacent story on page 1 of the print version is a rah-rah piece about the current nanotech wave in Albany.

Maybe some editorial board comment would be appropriate about Big GE’s treatment of human laborers as mere commodities.

Many of these GE employees have the types of training and professional backgrounds that would be transferable to these types of organizations. GE always cuts jobs when they lose profits, these other organizations have a firm commitment to remain in the area. Be proactive and good luck with your job search!